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Pictured is a conceptual rendering of the lobby area known as The Porch.

Pictured is a diagram of a visitor's journey through the interpretive center.

Pictured is a conceptual rendering of an exhibit.

Pictured is a conceptual rendering of the inside of the interpretive center.

Pictured is a conceptual rendering of the inside of the interpretive center.

Pictured is a conceptual rendering of the outside of the new Vicksburg National Military Park Interpretive Center. (Images courtesy of Perkins&Wills and Beard & Riser Architects via the Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

When members of the National Park Service, the Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) came together to host a community engagement session at the park’s visitor center Wednesday night in Vicksburg, it was the culmination of years of work, and the beginning of years more to come.

The meeting was the second of its kind held that day in order to fill in the community on the status of the $100 million project that will ultimately bring a new interpretive center to Vicksburg in 2028 – the first taking place Wednesday at noon in Jackson.

Bess Averett, executive director of the Friends organization, said the assembled groups were excited to finally fill the public in on what has been happening behind the scenes of the project. Averett said the new center will ultimately replace the current visitors center in Vicksburg with a state-of-the-art facility focused on telling stories related to not just the history of the River City, but also of Mississippi, and how it all ties into America’s story.

“This is really the most exciting thing, I think, that has happened for our park in Vicksburg in a long time,” Averett said Wednesday. “Our organization, I think we have loosely been planning for this since 2014.”

Averett said work to begin the process of planning the project has included years of grant writing, feasibility studies and organization, all leading to Wednesday’s presentation, which included the unveiling of conceptual renderings of the new center.

“We’re really excited that the project has come to the point that it has now,” she said, adding funding and support for the project has come from all levels, including local and state aid.

“In the closing days of the 2023 legislative session, the Mississippi Legislature directed MDAH to work with the Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park and the National Park Service at the Vicksburg National Military Park to construct a state-of-the-art center,” MDAH Vicksburg Project Manager Megan Bankston said. “And we want to thank Bess Averett, who was the driving force behind the state’s commitment and involvement.”

That commitment, Averett said, has included $10 million from the Mississippi Legislature to launch the project, as well as an additional $6 million in 2024. 

Bankston said those funds will help allow the new center to tell the story of not only Vicksburg, but also of other sites around the state.

“The Vicksburg National Military Park was established in 1899 to commemorate and preserve the site of the battle of the siege (of Vicksburg during the Civil War),” Bankston said. “The park was more recently expanded to include other campaign sites in the surrounding areas, such as Port Gibson, Champion Hill and Chickasaw Bayou. The Vicksburg Military Park is the  most visited cultural site in the state. However, the visitors center was built in the 1960s and it lacks the space for expansion. So, more than just a single battle, or the 47-day siege, the partners envision a new museum that tells the complete story of the Vicksburg campaign. It will expand on the existing narrative with diverse stories from soldiers, sailors and civilians, both free and enslaved.”

While the new center’s mission is to tell the story of Vicksburg’s history, Bankston said the economic impact of the project cannot be ignored.

“The new center will contextualize the full story of Vicksburg and the legacy of the war, and promises to have a positive economic impact on the city, the region and the state,” she said.

In October, Mississippi Lt. Delbert Hosemann sat down with The Post and said the project will be a huge boon for the River City’s tourism industry.

“We have been meeting with Katie Blount, who runs archives and history, and we have also met with the architects that are designing the new interpretive center, or conference center, that is going out there for the (Vicksburg National Military Park). We have placed approximately $17 million into that already. In 2024, there was $7 million that came for the Vicksburg Military Park interpretive center and that coincides with $10 million that we got last year, and Sen. (Briggs) Hopson and I are pushing toward an eventual investment by the state of $40 million. Of course, it will be more than that, so our arrangement with the friends of the military park is that they will raise the remainder.”

Zena Howard, managing principal for Perkins and Will architectural services, said the design of the new building can be seen as “a journey through darkness and light,” before unveiling conceptual designs for the center for those in attendance. Howard said the design’s theme is not just a way of incorporating the park’s natural beauty into the design, but also serves as a metaphor for what the people of the time period endured.

 “I think everybody has heard whispers, but we’re excited to share a little bit,” Averett said of Wednesday’s announcements. 

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